[43], Since 2010, the brother have become highly visible, with "journalists and bloggers" reporting on their latest "fundraising goals and election maneuvers", Democrats demonizing them (Democratic fundraising appeals that mentioned the Koch brothers reportedly have generated more donations than those that do not),[45] media interviewing them[43] and publishing their op-eds. [49], Charles Koch criticized Trump's Muslim travel ban suggestions during the campaign and went so far as to say "it's possible" that Hillary Clinton could be a better president, although he strongly denied rumours that he would actually support Clinton. )[168], According to Kert Davies, the founder and director of Climate Investigations Center, "youd have a carbon tax, or something better, today, if not for the Kochs. The company, based in Wichita, Kan., employs 60,000 in the U.S., another 40,000 outside the country and operates in 60 countries. [212][213], The Koch network, at their 2018 meeting the launch of Safe Streets and Second Chances, announced a $4 million pilot project designed to shift the American criminal justice system from punishment to prioritizing rehabilitation. About Koch family Fred C. Koch started America's largest private company, Koch Industries, when he cofounded the Wood River Oil and Refining Company in 1940. How the Koch brothers fundamentally changed modern politics", "Koch Brothers' Budget of $889 Million for 2016 Is on Par With Both Parties' Spending", "Koch vs. Koch: The Brutal Battle That Tore Apart America's Most Powerful Family", "Inside The Koch Empire: How The Brothers Plan To Reshape America", "Trump tariffs assailed at Koch network gathering", "Billionaire Family Feuds: The High Stakes Of Dysfunction And Dissent", "Charles Koch Says His Partisanship Was a Mistake", "Move from Libertarian Party to GOP: Koch brothers change tactics, not beliefs", "David Koch is pro-choice, supports gay rights; just not Democrats | CNN Politics", "Corporate funding and ideological polarization about climate change", "Researchers: Exxon, Koch Family Have Powered the Climate-Denial Machine for Decades", "Maybe Charles Koch isn't worried about climate change because he doesn't get the science", "Not just Koch brothers: New study reveals funders behind climate change denial effort", "Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama", "Behind the retreat of the Koch brothers' operation", "The Koch network is reorganizing under a new name and with new priorities", "OPINION Koch network lurks behind school mask battles, despite soothing new tone at the top", "David Koch breaks from GOP on gay marriage, taxes, defense cuts", "Where Did the Libertarian Party Go Wrong? In fact, that year they were tied for 11th place on the Forbes annual list of the world's richest people. Among other things the proposed letter asserted that "young kids do not significantly spread COVID either" and claimed that "common sense" teaches that requiring masks in school may lead to anxiety, depression, decreases in socialization skills, and increases in tooth decay in children. To be fair, there's no solid evidence that the Koch brothers themselves are secret neo-Nazis. [205][206] The Kochs and the ACLU are also invested in putting an end to Asset forfeiture by law enforcement, which deprives persons of often the bulk of their private property. And David Koch, in a recent, admiring article about him in New York . Both FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity have provided support for the Tea Party movement. "[241], Conor Friedersdorf of the The Atlantic's "Daily Dish" defended the Kochs, saying that while he respected Mayer, "as best I can tell, the Koch brothers are legitimately upset by some aspects of the piece, and anyone who reads it should also look at the rebuttals from libertarians who are persuasively pushing back against some of its conclusions. by two scientists -- Richard A. Muller (a UC Berkeley physicist) and Elizabeth Mullerwho "found merit in some of the concerns of climate skeptics",[181] and believed global warming climate data was flawed. ", By 1984, David had parted company with the Libertarian Party, because, he said, "they nominated a ticket I wasn't happy with" and "so many of the hard-core Libertarian ideas are unrealistic". He had nothing but kind words for Darwin. The brothers' ideology is libertarian, more specifically the right-libertarian branch most common found in American-style libertarianism. David Koch was known more for his philanthropic giving, while Charles was more . [2], The donor network of Charles Koch announced it would fund a primary challenge to Trump during the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries. [161] After the fund's president also appeared at a summit held by the brothers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a major labor union, providing $50,000 annually ended its support for the fund in protest.[162]. [234] In the same year it "granted more than $1 million to the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List", which amounted "about half of the $2 million the group spent that year on advertising for anti-choice candidates and against pro-choice candidates in state and federal races across the country". The Mullers organized a group of scientists in early 2010 to "reanalyze the Earths surface temperature record". [53][74][75][76] Koch Industries cited the protests an example of what they see as liberal hypocrisy regarding fundraising as these same groups don't protest big money donations for Democratic fundraisers. By being a candidate, Koch took advantage of campaign finance laws exempting him from limits on donations and ultimately "contributed about $2.1 million, more than half the [Libertarian] campaign budget.[15][13][35] This gave the candidates enough cash to run advertisements and try to get on the ballot in all 50 states. The Koch Brothers", "The Radical Capitalist Behind the Critical Race Theory Furor", "Conservative Koch network disavows critical race theory bans", "David Koch Gives Smithsonian $35 Million For New Dinosaur Hall", "The right's dinosaur fetish: Why the Koch brothers are obsessed with paleontology", "Exclusive: Koch groups launch ad campaign to promote immigration reform", "Koch brothers fire back at Reid's remark", Koch Industries webpage, "Koch Facts" section, Koch Industries Responds to Rolling Stone And We Answer Back, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers&oldid=1159972865, This page was last edited on 13 June 2023, at 18:20. "[152], Other groups the Kochs have supported include, Between 2007 and 2012, Koch family foundations reportedly "contributed $30.5 million to 221 colleges and universities". [157], In 2011, the Charles G. Koch foundation made a grant of $1.5 million to Florida State University (FSU) in exchange for allowing the foundation, via an advisory committee,[158] to approve hiring decisions in the university's economics department for a program that promotes "political economy and free enterprise". "[238], Following President Bidens 2022 State of the Union address, Jorge Lima, senior vice president for policy at the Koch brothers connected Americans for Prosperity stated Rather than continuing to use immigration as a wedge issue, we urge lawmakers to roll up their sleeves and drive solutions that both tackle these issues and have broad public support. From around 2004 to 2019,[2] with "foresight and perseverance",[1] the brothers organized like-minded wealthy libertarian-oriented conservatives, spent hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to build an "integrated" and "stealth" network of think tanks, foundations, "grassroots" movements,[2] academic programs, advocacy and legal groups to "destroy the prevalent statist paradigm"[3] and reshape public opinion to favor minimal government. [231] Some gay rights advocates have complained that despite the brothers' vocal ideological libertarian stand against "government intrusions, including laws that criminalized homosexuality", their devotion to conservative causes sometimes led them to support anti-gay rights politicians, (such as Vice President Mike Pence, whose two campaigns for governor of Indiana the network "contributed heavily to"), and organizations (such as the American Legislative Exchange Council, which "at least in its early years, strongly opposed LGBTQ equality").[232]. When David Koch died in 2019 at the age of 79, Business Insider reported that he and his brother Charles' net worth totaled over $100 billion, making them two of the richest people in the world. We invested a lot in grassroots army that was not controllable. Since then the Koch brothers have given more than one million dollars to AFP. Contrary to the impression of some, it is not an impenetrable maze of money funding all matter of right-wing groups; though some organizations outside of the core group have been funded, most of the grants bestowed by its "funding conduits" (such as Freedom Partners), are relatively tiny and not ongoing. [189][190], The Koch brothers' Lambe Foundation has donated to the American Energy Alliance, an offshoot of the Institute for Energy Research that promotes oil and gas energy exploration and production and looser government regulations to encourage them. Americans for Prosperity reportedly spent $700,000 on ads supporting Governor Scott Walker's changes to collective bargaining. David Koch established the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation. The influential network associated with conservative billionaire Charles Koch has collected more than $70 million for political races, the group announced Thursday, as it gears up to help shape . By Hiroko Tabuchi. Trump, likewise, ripped the Kochs in a 2018 tweet tirade, saying they've become a "total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade.". [97], Charles and David have run fundraising/seminars on conservative public policy and political strategy twice a year since 2003. [77] William Koch, the younger brother of Charles and David, gave $1 million to Restore Our Future, a super-PAC backing Romney. The guest list at their gatherings was shrouded in secrecy. [71] Due to Koch's contribution to Walker's campaign, David Koch became a symbolic target for the protests. Doing so would have meant 80% of the known coal, oil and gas reserves owned by industry would have to "stay unused in the ground"a potentially "catastrophic" financial loss to these fossil fuel titans (according to climate scientists and journalist Jane Mayer). It describes itself as offering information on issues including, among others, energy, environment, biotechnology, pharmaceutical regulation, chemical risk, telecommunications, etc. Schwarzman. The Koch brothers were two of the richest men in the world, with net worths of $58.7 billion each, according to Bloomberg. [151], The Kochs have donated millions of dollars via organizations they fund to the National Federation of Independent Business. Will they destroy it? [226] A grant from the Charles Koch Foundation funded a National Bureau of Economic Research study finding that California's shelter-in-place style lockdown policy "led to as many as 1,661 fewer COVID-19 deaths" in the spring of 2020. In 2013 "NFIB and its affiliated groups received $2.5 million from Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a conservative advocacy group with deep ties to the Koch empire. Charles and David Koch have been involved in, and/or provided funding to include: the Cato Institute (they provided the initial funding), the Federalist Society (they are key donors). [196][200][201] In October 2013, the Americans for Prosperity group began a campaign to oppose "Obamacare" in the state of Virginia. [52] Interested in maintaining their discreet influence, Charles and David have donated to non-profit groups who do not disclose their donors. [13], They actively fund and support organizations that contribute significantly to Republican candidates, promote climate change denial,[16][17][18][19][20] and in particular that lobby against efforts to expand government's role in health care and climate change mitigation. [21][26][27][28][29] He gave a speech in 1963 warning of a takeover of America in which Communists would infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the president is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us. [111] The Claude. The meeting invitation stated that "[our] prosperity is under attack by the current [i.e. [170], In "2011 and 2012, Koch Industries Public Sector LLC, (the lobbying arm of Koch Industries)", pushed for the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which would have prevented the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gases, according to the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University[171][172], Regarding public opinion, over $500 million was spent on a "campaign to manipulate and mislead the public about the threat posed by climate change" between 2003 and 2010 according to researcher Robert Brule. [43], The gatherings were characterized by great secrecy (participants were routinely urged to destroy all paperwork of the gatherings), commitment to conservative free market ideology, and the wealth of the participants, known as "investors" (in 2015, for example, 18 billionaires were present at a seminar). At the state level, they gained 900 seats in state legislatures. Groups that cater to specific constituencies, like Libre for Latinos or Concerned Veterans for America, have moved under the AFP umbrella. Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez have been cast in Season 2 of Ryan Murphy's "Monster," Variety has learned. ), German physician and one of the founders of bacteriology. [121][122] As of 2015, David Koch sat on the board of directors of the Cato Institute,[123] the Reason Foundation and the Aspen Institute. Charles and David Koch, better known as the Koch Brothers, ran businesses around the world and supported charitable causes galore. [21] In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy was renamed FreedomWorks, while its affiliated Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation became Americans for Prosperity (AFP). [52] They avoided all but the minimum legally required financial disclosures. [57] Other prominent and wealthy participants include Robert Mercer, Ken Langone, Richard Strong, Philip Anschutz, Richard DeVos (19262018), Richard Gilliam, J. Larry Nichols, Harold Hamm, Richard Farmer. The influential, libertarian-leaning Koch network has been rocked by an alleged affair scandal, departures of key donors and a workplace discrimination lawsuit. [208] Similarly, civil rights activist Anthony Van Jones lent a comparable praise towards the Kochs' actions. [203], The Kochs stepped up their work on the issue in 2015, partnering with left-leaning groups to promote reforms to reduce incarceration in the United States. [222] The group circulated a template letter to its members encouraging them to personalize and mail it to "your own school superintendents and administrators, principals, and teachers!" The foundation helped finance a 2007 analysis suggesting that climate change was not a threat to the survival of polar bears,[185] which was questioned by other researchers,[186] but nonetheless "echoed throughout the Koch network". The Koch Foundation was a major funder of the Berkeley Earth, an effort started The environmentalist group Greenpeace writes that organizations that the Koch brothers help fund such as Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the Manhattan Institute were active in questioning global warming. But inside the "beltway" of the nation's capital, where the success of the Koch network's election campaign victories meant a majority in congress, there was an embrace of austerity, tax cuts for "job creators", and a dismissal as "out of the question" measures fighting global warming and inequality. [2], As early as mid-2015, the New York Times reported, Once known for grim letters to fellow wealthy Americans warning of socialist apocalypse, Charles G. Koch now promotes research on the link between freedom and everyday happiness. "[44], The secrecy was effective enough that prior to the digging of investigative reporters such as Jane Mayer, even many Washington insiders had not heard of them.
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